


Schism- A Star Wars Short

by Creed_Nation



Series: The Smith Saga [8]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22230946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Creed_Nation/pseuds/Creed_Nation
Summary: Accompanying Mace Windu to the planet Ruul, General John Smith learns the struggles of five Jedi's thoughts on the war, unaware of a traitor and an assassin in their midst.
Series: The Smith Saga [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1486988
Comments: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is based on the comic Star Wars: Jedi- Mace Windu- "Schism", which is where the title comes from.
> 
> Also, this one will have a couple chapters, as opposed to just one.

_Lianna, 2232, one year and three months after the battle of Geonosis_

On the planet Lianna, General John Smith waits for the Jedi to finish their memorial service of a fallen Jedi, looking about the battlefield that the Jedi was slain on.

"At times like these," he said to himself. "With how terrible war is, I wonder if we have grown to fond of it."

Smith wondering wasn't long, as Mace Windu, Yoda, and Quinlon Vos joined him later. He was silent as the Jedi spoke, only listening in, here and there.

"...What about your skills?" Windu asked Vos. "I understand you have been carrying a blaster while undercover."

"Indeed," Vos replied. "It has been sometime since I used a lightsaber. I would be honored to test myself against you."

"One should keep one's skills honed. Master Yoda?"

Yoda grunted. "Practiced I had with Count Dooku. Sufficent, that was."

"Let me duel him," Smith said.

"You?" Vos said. "You aren't a Jedi."

"One doesn't need to be a Jedi to use a lightsaber. I did kill Tholme's assassin with his lightsaber when I lost my Katana. Plus, I too need my own skills honed."

"Then you will need this," Windu said as he held a lightsaber out to Smith.

Smith examined the weapon and said, "This is Tholme's. I have no desire to take it, you know."

"I know."

Smith activated the weapon and faced Vos. "Shall we?"

"Don't be easy on me," Vos said as he activated his weapon.

"Define easy."

As Smith and Vos fenced, the Jedi continued the conversation they were doing before hand.

Windu looked back at the fight as Smith switched to the reversed grip and blocked a strike from Vos. "Free the mind and spirit so you don't have to fight. The best use of the lightsaber is not to use it. You need to work on this."

Smith hardly listened in to what they said, focusing more on the fight. He only heard words like "Master Bulq", "Ruul", and "Schism", for some odd reason.

"You are off balance, Vos," Windu said. "If a Jedi has fear or anger within him, his energy becomes tipped, and the force also loses its balance."

Smith sent a strike aimed above Vos's head, which he blocked.

"Big mistake," he said as he whacked Vos with the handle of the lightsaber. "You said don't be easy. So, don't hold back."

"Very well, I won't."

Vos lounged out, but Smith quickly blocked it with a reverse grip in his left hand and punched Vos in the face with his right.

"Stop!" Windu said. "That is enough for now, Vos."

"What happened?" Vos asked. "Was there something I did?"

"That last move was part of a form seven maneuver."

"Form seven?" Smith asked.

"Vaapad, the seventh form of lightsaber combat, is the most aggressive of them all. It can take one down a dark path; with Vos, he walks to close to that path at times."

"I didn't know, Master," Vos said. "I won't use it again."

"Question is: how did you learn that move anyway?" Smith asked.

"Master Bulq taught me it when he retrained me, but he never told me that it was part of Vaapad."

"Steer clear of it," Widu said. "In the meantime, get word to the dissidents that I have agreed to meet them."

As Vos and Yoda left, Smith asked, "What dissidents do you speak of?"

"You weren't listening?" Windu asked.

"Only here and there."

"Master Sora Bulq has called for a meeting on the planet Ruul, where he has an estate there, and four other Jedi Masters are there too. They have requested on the condition that one member of the Council be there. With what Vos did, I must go, no matter what."

"Let me go with you."

"Why? You are not a Jedi."

"Cut the crap and stop repeating another Jedi's words. You know of my connections to the Jedi and you trust me enough to respect your ideals. Besides, I too am curious as to what this 'schism' is all about."

"Very well."

Smith handed back Tholme's lightsaber.

"Keep it for now. None of the others know about you or seen your face. I will think of a story for you."

"You are going to lie to them?"

"A half-truth is what it will be."

"A man on my world named Lord Alfred Tennyson once said that a half-truth is the blackest of all lies."

"Indeed, this Alfred Tennyson is right and I agree, but the dissidents won't trust me or you if you show your true self."

"So, like an undercover mission, in a way?"

"In a way."


	2. Chapter 2

Removing the military signage from his uniform and taking the name Ronin Grennor, Smith and Windu headed to Ruul to meet the dissidents.

Smith stayed silent as he listened to Windu speak with Bulq, giving Smith his cover story as a Jedi that Tholme trained outside the Temple and away from the Jedi.

Bulq said, "It seems strange in a way. Young Ronin seems familiar, as he shares a similar resemblance to someone I saw on Geonosis."

"Could be a trick of the mind, would you say?" Windu asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. Tell me, Ronin, have we seen each other before?"

"I know many in the Order," Smith said. "You, I'm sorry to say, aren't one of them."

"Very well. I will get the others. Wait here please."

An hour later, Smith was in the company of Windu, Bulq, and four other Jedi, one male human, two female humanoids, and one male alien.

For the next hour, Smith learned much about each individual Jedi about there feelings about the war.

Master K'kruhk, the alien of the group, expressed disinterest in the war when his company of clone troopers, who he saw as individuals as well, where all killed in the battle of Teyr, leaving the war behind afterward, even leaving everyone with the thought that he perished in the fight. In a way, it lead him to believe the war made him go against an ideal of the Order: preserving life.

Master Jeisel, one of the female humanoids, had simply lost faith, not just in the Republic, but with the Jedi as well.

Mira, the other humanoid and Bulq's former apprentice, believed that the war prevented any possibility for diplomacy.

Rhad Tarn, the human in the group and the youngest, believed they should be fighting for the Confederacy and not the Republic. Smith could tell that he had less self-control than the others.

Bulq was mostly silent about his reasoning, save what happened on Geonosis over a year ago.

After the group was dispersed, Smith stayed there, his thoughts running wild with everything he learned. He believed that most of the Jedi here, save Tarn, had true conflicting reasons as to way they refuse to continue fighting. He rejected Tarn's reason altogether, as he believed that the Confederacy fought against, not just the ideals of the Republic, but also his own: preserving freedom, liberty, justice, life, and way of life. Ideals he learned from his Army days in the Terran-Martian War and beyond, even in this war.

He heard a lightsaber in the distance, breaking his thoughts. He ran in the direction of the noise. When he came to a slope, he saw Mira fighting the Sith assassin, Asajj Ventress, who he first encountered during the Siege of Kamino, with Bulq on the ground, unconscious.

He activated Tholme's lightsaber and lunged at the assassin. With the weapon in a reverse grip in his right hand, he plunged the blade into... Mira? Smith's eyes widen as he realized he was tricked. He deactivated the weapon as the assassin retreated when the others arrived and held Mira in his arms.

"I'm sorry," Smith whispered.

"It wasn't your fault," Mira said as she gave one last breath of air and died.

"Mira?" Bulq said as he woke up. When he realized Mira was dead, he sighed and took her lifeless body in his arms.

"Dead," Tarn said. "Killed by your assassin, Windu."

"Tarn," Smith said. "It wasn't-"

Tarn lunged at Smith, but was stopped by Smith's punch to his face, breaking his nose and making it bleed.

"You broke his nose, Ronin," Jeisel said.

"I could have done worst," Smith said. "And my name isn't Ronin Grennor; it's John Frederick William Benjamin Xavier Smith, Terran general and commander of the Republic's Third Army."

"The war hero?" Tarn said as he held his nose.

"Ah, I knew I saw you before," Bulq said.

"At the Geonosian Arena, perhaps," Smith said. "But I never saw you there."

K'kruhk said, "We still have an assassin to deal with."

"Indeed, we do," Tarn said, wiping what little blood was on his face.

"I knew you calm down with that," Smith said.

"And it cleared my head, too. Thank you. I really needed that. Helped me learn that I need some self-control."

"Right. Let's go."

"Go on ahead," Bulq said. "I'll be with you shortly."

"I'll stay with Master Bulq," Windu said.

With that, Smith, Jeisel, Tarn, and K'kruhk chased after Ventress. Despite being outnumbered four to one, Ventress disarmed all but Smith.

"I beat you on Kamino," Ventress said. "I will beat you again. And this time, I'll kill you."

"There is a big difference this time," Smith said as he blocked a strike. "I didn't have a lightsaber then."

"Still, you have no skills with the weapon."

"I trained with the greatest sword masters of my world in my day. So far, their training has paid off."

Ventress laughed as they locked blades. "You think you are so witty with these one liners."

"Like the Spartans of old."

Tarn charged as Smith distracted Ventress, but she saw it coming. She activated her second lightsaber and plunged it into Tarn's chest, killing him.

Smith grabbed Tarn's lightsaber and blocked two strike from his left and right. With their arms out to their limits, Smith and Ventress's faces nearly touched.

"We are equals, you and I," Ventress said.

"Maybe," Smith said. "Except for one thing: my fighting ain't sloppy."

Ventress yelled in anger and sent strikes left and right, but Smith blocked each one.

Windu appeared and Ventress, upon seeing him, jumped of an edge and landed on a droid. Smith stood on the edge with the lightsabers in his hands in the reverse grip.

"We will live to fight another day," Ventress said as the droid took her back to her ship.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Smith said as he deactivated the lightsaber, laying Tarn's next to his body. "Where is Bulq?"

"He was in league with the assassin. Their earlier fight was a sham meant to deceive."

"A traitor within the Order."

"Only since he was confronted by Dooku on Geonosis."

"So, now what?"

"I'll be heading back to the Temple. What the other will do is they're choice. I'll not make it for them."

"And what will they say when you tell them that I killed a Jedi?"

"Tell them the truth. Let them know you were deceived."

"And you?"

"I believed you did what you had to do. Do not feel guilty. Like I said, you were tricked. You had the right mindset, just you failed to see the whole picture before you."

Smith sighed. "Thank you. It is comforting to know."


End file.
